


Between the Lines

by Allecto



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 20:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1661195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allecto/pseuds/Allecto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What the Smithsonian said, and what it didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Между строк](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9479273) by [Allecto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allecto/pseuds/Allecto), [SemechkaBlack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemechkaBlack/pseuds/SemechkaBlack), [WTFStarbucks2017](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTFStarbucks2017/pseuds/WTFStarbucks2017)



He was the oldest of four children, the exhibit says, but what it doesn’t say is that he was the only boy. It doesn’t say his mother had two miscarriages between him and Helen, who was six years younger, that Lizzie came four years after her, that Katie was born three weeks early, four years after Lizzie, when Bucky was fourteen and already the man of the house.

It doesn’t say he was the man in Mrs. Rogers’ house, either, splitting his salary when he had to, to help pay for heating. Not that either of them told Steve, but someone had to look out for him, and a nurse’s salary only stretched so far, even with a discount on medicine, a bonus for working the TB ward.

It says he was good at sports, but it doesn't say why he learned boxing.

It doesn’t say that his mother owned a candy shop, which is why Bucky and the girls never starved, even with his father wasting money on drink. It doesn’t say Bucky kicked his dad out, two months before Katie’s birth, just as soon as he got someone to hire him on at the docks. It doesn’t say Katie came early ‘cause his dad came back, when Bucky was out, and caught his mom a wallop.

It doesn’t say Steve was in the ambulance with her, pressing ice to his eye and trying to remember how to breathe, that Helen and Lizzie sat with Mrs. Williams next door, crying, while Bucky finished his shift because they couldn’t risk his job sending him after his mama.

It doesn’t say he went straight to the hospital after work, that they wouldn’t let him back to see his mother, that visiting hours were over but the nurses knew him ‘cause of Steve and Mrs. Rogers, and let him see the baby. That he learned her name from strangers, that a fat man with rings on both hands slapped his back and gave him a cigar he couldn’t smoke because Steve was there, waiting for him.

It doesn’t say he went home, after, and made his sisters dinner, and in the morning he braided their hair because someone had to, that the fingers which would later be so nimble on the trigger first learned to be patient combing through snarls, bobby pins in his mouth and a ribbon on the table. It doesn’t say he sang to Lizzie, all the latest standards, to make her smile even though she’d have to stay with Mrs. Williams while he worked and Helen went to school. He held her hands in his, and she stood on his feet and they danced, her braids flying out behind her, and Bucky picked her up at the end and kissed her cheek and she hugged him.

It doesn’t say how Lizzie cried, years later, a teenager and all, when he shipped out. That he held her in his arms again, her feet on his, and danced for both of them, because the polio two years earlier meant she’d never do it on her own.

It doesn’t say how Katie struggled for breath, like Steve, how she was small for years and prone to pneumonia and it says he enlisted, but it’s wrong, because he remembers, distinctly, suddenly, the guilt of knowing the money in the army was good, better than the docks, but not being brave enough to sign up for getting shot at. He remembers lying to Steve about it, later, though. 

It doesn’t say he did that, either.

It says he was the oldest of four, but it doesn’t say he found his dad, when Katie was six months old, and offered him money to divorce his mom. That he sent him part of his pay on the regular, even after his ma remarried, and the old man couldn’t touch her again. It doesn’t say he protected Steve from bullies ‘cause he grew up with one, and it doesn’t say he hated Steve, sometimes, ‘cause bullies were easy to fight when they were strangers.

It doesn’t say his sisters’ names, either, but he finds a librarian, later, and asks for help, says it’s a research project. Gets their names, and even finds a newspaper article that mentions they still live in Brooklyn. 

They still live.

He was one of four children, the sign says, but what it doesn’t say is that he still is. That three women, older now than he is, make him sit, make him coffee, and one of them has a cane, and one of them has a leg brace, and one of them runs her fingers gently through his hair, and braids it, and all of them kiss his cheek and hug him, and tell him about their children, and their grandkids, and that he has a nephew James, but Rebecca’s the one just like him, and when he can’t help crying they hold him, his three girls, and cry along with him.

It says other things in the exhibit, too.

It says he shipped out to Italy with the 107th.

It doesn’t say he came home.


End file.
